LForce: Twin Torture
by BatmanLoonaticsFan96
Summary: The gang is struggling now that Zack's defected. And the fact that Zara is having trouble with her power and being tortured by Zack through their twin bond is not making things any easier. Sequel to "Family Affair"
1. Chapter 1

L-Force: Twin Torture

Alright! Another one (finally)! Sorry it took me so long to get this one posted, I hit some REALLY bad writer's block with it. Anyway, I think this one will go well/be a good one. The last one was a really important one for the series, especially this season, but this one...not so much. Well, it is important in some respects that become important in themselves for the story altogether...and I'm talking too much, aren't I? Anyway, hope you enjoy it! On with the story!

Chapter 1

"OK," said Kyra as she led 4 kids into the hideout, "welcome to L-Force, this is the hideout, blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda, yadda, etc. etc. All you gotta do is meet everyone." She whistled loudly, getting everyone's attention. They all looked at her. "Alright. Guys, everyone. Everyone, Ingrid, Max, Paula, and Quinn. Ingrid's a Witch and Quinn's a Warlock."

Cassandra walked up to them. "Hey. Cassandra."

Ingrid, a redhead whose hair was brownish-tinted, smiled. "Hi."

"So what can you guys do?"

"Heat vision and ice vision," Ingrid answered for herself.

"Huh," Nathan said, coming up, "I have X-ray vision and night vision."

Max, a fennec fox, smiled. "And I have enhanced vision."

Ace came up. "Hey. So do I!"

"Actually, mine is more 'enhance' like 'zoom in'."

"Oh."

"And I can unlock any lock."

"He's our skeleton key," Paula said. She was a chipmunk, believe it or not. Her eyes were sunset (reddish-orange) and her shoulder-length brunette hair had a streak of grey and a streak of white (to match the stripes on her back). And she was pretty thin for a chipmunk. "Meanwhile, I can…let me demonstrate." She held out her hand and a rainbow spread through the room. Tech put his hand through it and felt nothing. _Illusion,_ Paula sent out to everyone in the room, _and telepathy._

"Wow," said Orion, "I'm impressed."

Quinn (a brunette boy with brown eyes) scoffed. "My poderes are en el momento que fresco."

Subtitles: My powers are just as cool.

"What did he say?" asked Zara.

"I don't know," said Paula, "He was in Spanish!"

"Maybe you should've read the subtitle," said Nathan.

"Huh?"

"Nothing."

Quinn smirked. "I'm omnilingual."

"Which means…" Kyra egged him on.

"I can speak any language."

"Oh."

"And by touching a book, I automatically memorize it. I call it speed-reading."

"That one will help." Kyra snapped her fingers and Slam struggled over with a huge pile of heavy books. He dropped them in a heap on the floor by them.

"You want me to go through all of these," Quinn said.

"Exactly," Kyra said, smiling, "See the Dark Side has this…creature on their side calling herself Wake, an Oasis. We don't know what that means, so we were going to go through all these books. We knew it would take a while, so I guess you can help us out with this."

Quinn looked at the books for a few more seconds. "Fine. I'll call it my first assignment." He picked up a few books, checking them, and laid them on the floor to make a chair.

* * *

Wake walked around the main room of the 5-story building. "There's a room for me…I could get used to this."

"Nice place," said Zack, following her.

"What we had was just fine," said Deirdre, "until your dumb sister and her friends decided to come along and knock it down. If it weren't for Wake here, we would never have _survived_!"

Scarlet walked up. "Hey, I see this—did you get a garden for me?" Deirdre nodded. "I see this as an improvement."

Claire forced out a smile. "Totally and completely." She looked at Xavier. He sighed and shrugged.

Priscilla looked at them. She knew something was up. The only reason she hadn't already turned them in to Wake and Deirdre and the Vamps…was because she was having the same thoughts occasionally…

* * *

Quinn had been going through a cycle all day of picking up a book, thinking, and tossing it aside. That night, when Paula and Kyra came in, he was gone.

"I think we lost him in this mess," Paula said.

Kyra looked around. "Quinn?"

"In here," was the muffled reply.

Paula ran over and pulled him out of the heap of books.

Kyra smirked, fighting off the urge to giggle.

Quinn brushed himself off. "I have been reading all day. I intend to get some sleep! If you need me, I'll be outside for the next 5 minutes and then in bed!" He stormed out of the hideout. He walked out of the front door of the hut above it and walked around to the back. He started to lean against the wall and felt a slight burn. He pulled his hand back and saw a message engraving itself in the wall:

_Look in the bushes._

He heard a rustling and whirled around. One bush twitched a little, but whoever was there was already gone. He walked over to the bush and reached in, pulling out a book. He then speed-read it and his eyes widened. "Oh, boy." He ran back into the hideout to see that Kyra and Paula were still there. "Guys! I got it!"

"What'd you get?" asked Paula, walking over to him.

"Just get everyone in here now!"

* * *

Priscilla snuck into the building. She looked around to make sure no one was there. All the lights were out—which meant the team members were all asleep—and Wake wasn't out—which meant she was in her sound-proofed room, probably pacing or "watching." She sighed inwardly with relief. Suddenly, a knife flew at her, just barely missing her head. She whirled around to see Zack walking into the building after her.

Zack started to slowly walk over to her, his reddish-black eyes glaring at her intensely. "I saw that."

"I-I can explain."

Zack pushed her against the wall. "You gave the Loonies the _Book of Taurus_, didn't you? Deirdre stole that to make sure they didn't find out about Wake!"

"It's not a fair fight unless you know your opponent. It's not like it's gonna make a difference anyway."

"It's not supposed to be a fair fight! We know our opponents. Period. We have me. _They_ don't need to know _anything_ about _us_. They have Cassandra, that little traitor."

Priscilla looked him straight in the eyes. "She left before you came. You have no right to call her a traitor. Jeff and Axel may cover me, but I make my own decisions. I did what I had to do, end of story! You may be Deirdre and Wake's top warrior now, but that's as far as yours goes. What I did tonight is the greatest I will step out of bounds. I promise you that."

Zack half-smiled. "OK." He grabbed the knife. "Then this is as far as I step against you."

After he made his move, her scream could be heard for miles around.

* * *

"So what do you got?" Gail asked, settling on the couch.

Quinn took a deep breath then started his speech: "Alright, get this: Wake's been on the planet before."

"This planet?" Howie asked.

"Yup," Quinn continued, "See, back in about 1800—almost 1000 years ago—she came along. She found a small village and—mainly as a Vampire—devoured the whole place. Slowly rising to full power, she tried to take over and ultimately destroy the world. Turns out, she'd been a hell-child. She'd fought off the gods of the Underworld to rise to our dimension and rule it and…burn it up in a scourge of bloody fire." Everyone pictured that and shuddered. "Anyway, the Saviors—the champions of the age, who were in our place—banished her from the living realm to 'the Land of Nothingness' and made it so that she couldn't be reawakened by mortals."

"But Deirdre is a mortal, mutant or not," said Arra.

"No, she's not," said Cassandra, "During the nightmare fest a while ago, her nightmares didn't come true. I was wondering why she'd been unaffected by such a weird all-out spell and asked her what was going on and she said that she'd been immune to magic like that ever since she and her brother drank from some pool…over 50 years ago. She's not 21, she's been alive _and_ young for over 60 years. She's not human. Neither was her brother."

"Whoa…" Sandra wondered over that.

"Well, that's hard to believe," said Byron.

"But it's gotta be true," said Quinn, "Mortals, mutant or no, can't do this ritual. Deirdre must have been collecting the 'ingredients' for this ritual before her brother died, that jewel being one of them. Anyway, the ritual to raise Wake is to collect the 5 Jewels and 1010 souls and perform this ritual, but Wake doesn't get her full power until she's taken and gathered all of the souls…and a couple missing ingredients that the book says even the Saviors themselves didn't know about. Whether or not Wake and Deirdre or anybody else on the Dark Side knows about that is undetermined."

"So the only question remaining is what is an Oasis and how do we kill it," said Lexi.

"That's 2 questions," said Tech.

"Uh…that answer is the one I was hoping you weren't gonna ask for," said Quinn.

"What?" asked Ingrid.

"Well…" Quinn sighed. "Alright, let's get this over with. An Oasis is a combination of every magic creature ever to have existed."

"OK, so what's so bad about that?" asked Zara, "And what about the other question?"

"The answer to the other question is what's so bad about it. Every way to kill one creature is cancelled out by another: Vampires are killed by sunlight and stakes to the heart, but that only injures a Werewolf; Werewolves are killed by a silver bullet, but bullets don't harm Vampires; and Goblins and Trolls and Ogres and everything else all cancel each other out. Decapitation, sure, but not until she's at full power and by then she'd be too strong for us to get that near to her. There is no proper way to kill her!"

[Music swells.]

"That's it," said Duck, "We're doomed."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Cheyenne fiddled with a pair of contact lenses and gave them to Priscilla. "You're putting them on yourself."

Priscilla put the contacts over her injured eyes, her hair falling over her face as she did and blocking the sight that Cheyenne had refused to face. Priscilla suddenly felt rejuvenated in that area. Her sight was better than ever and she didn't have any urge to blink. She concentrated on one specific area and found herself zooming in on it. She pulled back her gaze and looked at Cheyenne.

"I made them so that you're sight is better than ever. Of course, you get the full experience over these sunglasses…" Cheyenne handed her the glasses. "…but I would only use those in dire situations."

"Thanks," Priscilla forced out as she put the glasses on her bedside table.

Cheyenne knocked her back on the bed and pinned her down. "Like right now. You got everything you deserved when Zack sliced you. He's not the only one who saw what you did." She left the room.

Priscilla sat up. She knew that she'd just made 2 enemies on her own team…3 if Wake had been watching her at the time…

Meanwhile, Deirdre walked up to Wake, who was back in her room. "So, anything we need to know about?"

"'The Loonies' got their hands on the _Book of Taurus_ and their newest recruit, a speed-reader, found out about me and told them all," she said.

"What? How'd they find that thing? I've been hiding it in our building since I stole it!"

"One of ours must have taken it and given it up."

Zack walked in. "And I know which one. Little Miss Prissy."

"Priscilla?" Deirdre cried, "Oh, that little—"

"We can't harm her," said Wake, "We need as many as we can get and Cassandra's trade in sides has caused enough trouble over here."

"Uh…can't harm her?" asked Zack, "Are you sure about that? Because I kind of already sliced her eyes open…"

Deirdre looked at him. "OK, if this were not already a dire situation for us, I would be proud of you. But right now is not the time for—"

"I didn't know!"

"Don't worry about it," said Wake, caressing the floor, "When we complete the ritual, everything will be the way it should be…the way it should have been 1000 years ago…" She continued to trace the pentagram carved on the floor. "All we need is the rest of the souls…some mixed blood…and that missing ingredient…"

* * *

Zara was walking down the halls. Suddenly, she stopped and looked at a door. The training room. She looked around to make sure no one was there and walked in. She closed the door behind her and walked up to the controls. She usually didn't use this thing, but she figured she could have some fun. She hit a button to activate it. She decided to set it for easy as a start. She walked up to the middle of the room and prepared for the start. She closed her eyes and thought long and hard about what she wanted to do. She could move stuff with her mind, she could heal people. She had to be able to heal herself or nobody could heal her, but she had to start by enhancing her senses with her wish-granting first. So she had to be able to grant her own wishes without even thinking them. And the obvious start would be combat. She concentrated and waited for the fight to start. Finally, the holographic ninjas (or whatever they were) came out and raced for her. She kicked one back. Good enough start. She spun around to kick the next one…and there wasn't anyone there. "Huh?" Another came up behind her and knocked her over. "Nuts. Glad I started at easy. Oh well, live and learn." She stood up. "Gotta at least think fight." She concentrated on this thought and restarted the fight. As soon as the first ninja guy came out, she whirled around to face him, kicking him in the face in the process. Another came out, and then another, and another, until finally she was surrounded by unconscious bodies. She then realized…she'd been fighting with her eyes closed! She opened her eyes. How had she seen everything when she wasn't looking? Wait a minute… She tried to think. She realized she hadn't been thinking at all at the time her wish kicked in, but it appeared that she'd done something. That's right! She wasn't thinking about the fight, she was recalling memories even if subconsciously…

_Zack was about 12, maybe a little younger, as was she._

_He was sitting on the couch in the family living room when she came up and sat next to him. "How you doing, bro?"_

_He just kept flipping through a comic book._

_"Zack!"_

_Zack jumped. "Oh! Hey, Zara. When'd you get here?"_

_She smiled. "I sat down, like, 10 seconds ago. Why are so obsessed with those comic books?"_

_"I prefer the term 'graphic novels' and you would be, too, if you got your hands on these."_

_"Got my hands on them? They're 700—maybe 800—years old! You found them in the cellar of the library and the librarian said you could take them because she didn't want the dust clogging the ventilation system! If I 'got my hands on these,' I'd be coughing up dust for a week! Maybe even a month!" She, just to illustrate her point, poked the one on the top of the stack lightly and a cloud of dust emerged and pounded on them._

_Zack swatted it away with the one he was holding. "Please don't do that again."_

_"Zack!" their mother called, "I told you to clean your room an hour ago!"_

_Zack groaned. "Fine! I'm coming!" He put down the book and walked up the stairs._

_Zara was left alone on the couch. She sighed. After a few seconds, she glanced over at the comic book pile. She looked up at the stairs and figured no one was coming anytime soon. She smiled mischievously and snatched one book, swatting away the dust before it could create a cloud, and started reading._

_After about 3 books of _Daredevil_… "Told you."_

_Zara jumped and turned to see her brother standing there, looking at her._

_"See? Now you know what that feels like."_

_Zara smiled. "Well, you were right. These are cool! I wish I could do stuff like they do." (ironic, huh?)_

_Zack smiled back. "Don't worry. You're just as cool."_

_"Aw…" Zara hugged him._

Zara smiled. She missed those days. But what was it about the memory that…oh! She was reading _Daredevil_ and his power was seeing stuff through sound waves even though he was blind. So she was seeing stuff based on the sonic vibrations of the electricity traveling through the room due to the holographic projection! She just had to go with it. Suddenly, she was remembering the day she met Kyra and Nathan…

_Nathan ran into a tree._

_Zara, down the street, saw this and stopped walking._

_"Careful, Nat!" 12-year-old Kyra snapped. Before she could help him up, she heard a meow. She looked up and saw a cat stuck in the tree. "That poor animal…" She jumped onto the tree trunk. As Nat got up and Zara looked on, Kyra, fast enough to avoid slipping, grabbed onto each individual branch until she was finally high enough to reach the cat. She grabbed the cat and got down._

_"I loosened him for you," said Nathan._

_Zara raced over there. "That was amazing!"_

_"You saw that?" asked Kyra, putting down the cat to let him run back to his owner._

_"Yeah," said Zara, "Uh, my name's Zara Thompson."_

_"I'm Kyra and this is Nathan."_

_"Hey."_

_Zara smiled. "So where do you live?"_

_"South Street Orphanage."_

_Zara stopped smiling. "Oh."_

_"Yeah, but we manage. We're not brother and sister or anything, but we're good friends."_

_Zara smiled again. "Idea…maybe I can talk my parents into letting you live with me and my brother."_

_Kyra and Nathan looked at each other._

Zara smiled as this memory came rushing back. She found herself back-flipping towards the next ninja. She knocked him so far back that he hit the wall and was unanimated.

Duck just so happened to be walking down the hall outside the training room and heard fighting inside. He walked in and saw Zara pounding away at the guys.

Zara was crouched on the floor in a battle stance. As soon as another ninja came around, she kicked him in the legs and knocked him down. She smiled one last time, the good memories still rushing through her. Then her smile faded.

_The meteor hit the planet…_

_Zack grabbed onto their mother's arm…killing her…_

Zara almost started crying. Why was this memory coming back around? Why was it hurting her? Wait a minute, it was literally hurting her! One of the ninjas came up and kicked her in the face, knocking her face-down on the floor.

"Simulation terminated."

"Zara!" Duck quacked over there and helped her up.

"Duck…" Zara panted, "…what happened?"

* * *

Back with the Dark Side, Zack was still in the room with Deirdre and Wake. He was about to leave. Suddenly, he stopped and groaned in pain.

Deirdre faced him. "Something wrong?"

Wake slowly started smiling. "With him, no. With his sister…yes."

Zack looked at her. "What's wrong with Zara?"

"Her power…she doesn't know what it's doing to her. Perhaps, you can show her…"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Wow," said Kyra as soon as Zara was done with her story.

The 2 girls were sitting on Zara's bed. Kyra had come to check on her after she'd not come out of her room for an hour. No one else on the team besides the 2 girls knew about Zara's enhanced powers, so there was no way she would've been able to explain it to anyone else, anyway.

"Yeah, wow," said Zara.

Kyra shook her head. "Something's going on here. First Wake, then Zack, now you?"

Zara half-smiled. "Yeah, our world's all wonky."

Kyra smiled. Then they heard a beeping noise. Kyra checked her watch and saw that Ace was calling. "Mission time."

Zara got up and got ready for the fight.

The 2 girls walked into the main room and met the others.

"So what's up now?" asked Zara.

"Full moon, all the crazies are out," said Nathan.

"And Vampires," said Trinity, "and Werewolves."

"So we've gotta patrol for them," said Ace.

Kyra checked the time to see that the full moon was on the rise. "Then we better get going now."

_Meanwhile…_

_With the Dark Side…_

Loraine grabbed her sweater and started to pull off Astrid, Meredith, and Josephine.

"Where are we going?" asked Astrid.

"It's the full moon," said Loraine, "While the Loonies are busy patrolling for Werewolves, we'll be off making more Vamps to join in."

"Well, how are we gonna know who's got enough power and who to just eat?" asked Josephine.

"Oh, trust me, we'll know," said Loraine before pulling them out of the building.

_Down the road…_

The gang started looking around. It was already getting pretty crazy out.

"Alright, guys," said Kyra, "We better split up to cover more ground before someone gets seriously hurt." A guy fell over behind her with a broken arm. She heard this. "Like that."

They all nodded.

"Alright, 1, 2, 3! Break!"

They all moved forward and hit each other's heads, knocking them all down.

Kyra got up. "Other way!"

"OH!" They all got up and turned around and ran off.

Kyra sighed. "I'm the commander of a bunch of stooges." She walked off.

On the other side of the road, Loraine dragged Astrid, Meredith, and Josephine up to an alleyway. "Alright, girls, start hunting." She started fishing through her bag."

"What are you looking for?" asked Astrid.

Loraine pulled out a small orb of light inside a tiny jar. "Wake gave it to me. She said that we could see people's power with it, like she can."

"She really trusts us with her power?" asked Josephine.

Loraine looked at Astrid. "Well, some of us."

Astrid glared at her. "Hurtful!"

Loraine rolled her eyes and opened the jar. The light spilled out and flowed into each of them. She looked around and could tell just by looking at someone if they had any powers and what they were. She smiled. "Good luck out there, girls. Split up."

The 3 girls did the same thing the gang had done.

Loraine glared at them. "THE OTHER WAY!"

"OH!" All 3 got back up and turned around.

Loraine groaned. "Imbeciles." She walked off.

Meredith walked into the alleyway and looked around. No one there.

"Meredith?"

Meredith whirled around and saw a young man about her age standing at the mouth of the alley and looking at her. "Ash!" She raced over to him and start kissing him.

He pushed her off. "Where were you the past 5 months?"

"Oh, come on. You were the one always telling me to get out more. And I was the one always saying how much I loved you." She started on him again.

He kept her away. "I'm breaking up with you."

She looked at him. "What?"

"You thought you could disappear for 5 months and then just show up and get back with me?"

"That was kind of the plan. I've been looking for you every night."

"Try the day time. You're freaking me out."

"_I'm _freaking _you_ out?"

"Are you OK?"

She glared at him. "You dump me in an alleyway on a full moon after I spent 5 months looking for you and you're wondering if I'm OK?"

"I've been looking for you, not the other way around."

"Come on, Ashton, I'm not giving in to this."

"You kind of have to, Mere. I just broke up with you. It's kind of final."

"Oh, no, it's really not. 'Cause, see, you're just succumbing to those little mortal urges that take you over. When you're like me…it's all different. All these feelings melt away. But you don't have that. I can give it to you if you'll let me…" She pinned him to the brick wall.

"Uh…you kind of lost me."

"Let me rephrase it: yeah, you just broke up with me, but I'm gonna have your heart if I have to rip it out!"

"Mere…"

She shushed him. "Don't worry. It'll feel like you're dead…well, because you will be. But really, you're just leaving this little mortal existence for something more, something better. I can give you that…and it only hurts for a moment." She Vamped out. He stared at her in fear as she leaned in for the bite…

Josephine bit a guy. Before she could take much blood, though, something scratched her. She, still in Vamp form, faced Valerie.

"Yeah, newsflash," said Valerie, "If you're gonna try to kill someone, you might wanna be a little more discreet about it and not do it in broad moonlight in the middle of the sidewalk."

Josephine looked around. Yeah, Valerie was right. Josephine then looked at her and saw what her powers were and smiled. She didn't let go of the guy she'd been feeding off of, though. She smirked at Valerie. "Oh, Val, forget it. I know what you really want."

"How do you know my name?"

"I know everything about you." She threw the guy into a wall and started walking closer to Valerie. "Seems like you're just a little too uptight about something you wish you could do. To feel that heartbeat and make it stop…it's exhilarating. But don't worry. You'll get it soon enough. I can make sure of it—"

Valerie sliced her in the throat.

Josephine looked at her as she covered the cut.

"Get out of here."

Josephine glared at her and walked off.

Valerie stared after her.

The guy Josephine had been attacking walked up to her. "Hey. You saved me. Normally, I'd be pretty upset about that since a girl saving a guy would hurt my rep, but I think we're cool here."

Valerie just looked at him. "And I think we're done here." She started to walk off.

The guy grabbed her arm. "Come on, don't be like that."

She stared at him. "Are you coming onto me?"

"What do you think?"

While he started getting closer, she reacted instinctively and kneed him in the gut. Before she could stop herself, she took it to the next level: she drew her claws back and pierced him with them… She instantly realized what she'd done and pulled away.

The guy covered his chest where she'd stabbed him.

She stared at him as he dropped down. She started breathing more heavily and then ran off.

Astrid, meanwhile, was leading more people into the Dark Side's building.

Deirdre noticed this and walked up to Astrid. "I can't believe it. We've got 32 people here. According to Wake, we only need 5 more to get even with the Loonies by the time the fight comes around."

Meredith then came back in and dropped Ashton's dead body on the floor.

Claire saw this and screamed, getting everyone's attention.

Priscilla's robotic eyes looked the guy over and showed her his vital signs…he had none. "He's dead." She looked at Meredith. "What'd you do?"

Meredith smirked. "I'll tell you what I just did: got us another recruit."

"Did you not hear me say he's dead?" asked Priscilla.

"Wait for it."

Josephine came back in, still covering her neck. She looked at Ashton's dead body and cocked her head. "You turned your boyfriend?"

"Yup."

"OK, then."

"Where's Loraine?" asked Deirdre.

"Probably still out rounding them up," said Josephine, "Knowing her, she's probably fed off 3 people by now, maybe turned a couple more." She then noticed Ashton getting up. "And knowing Mere here, she's played with this guy a little too much."

Claire turned her attention back to Ashton and her eyes widened as she saw a Vampire rising in his place. "Well, that was fast."

"With someone like Wake as our sire, we turn people faster," Meredith explained, "Or at least they rise faster, I'm not certain how the dying thing works."

"You know what? Talk about this later!" Deirdre snapped, "What is taking Loraine so long? We told her to be back from the hunt before the Loonies showed up!"

Zack walked up to her and scoffed. "Don't worry. She's not gonna face much of a threat." His reddish-black eyes flashed.

Deirdre smiled at him.

Loraine was feeding off a guy. She finally stopped, looked at him again, and shrugged before snapping his neck. Suddenly, part of a tree trunk flew at her and pierced her shoulder. She pulled it out and looked at Zara. "Wow, you're a horrible shooter."

Zara shrugged. "Maybe. But I'm a lot better as a kicker." She ran up to her and kicked her in the face, knocking her back. "I've been working out."

Loraine smirked at her in her human guise. "Oh, really?" She kicked her in the legs, knocking her down. "So have I."

Zara looked at her. She probably shouldn't be tapping back into her power for a fight after what happened in the training room that afternoon, but this was an emergency. She tapped back in and kicked Loraine in the stomach. She jumped up and then did a flying-kick that knocked her back again and then punched her in the face, knocking her back into Vamp mode. She fought with her evenly for about 15 more seconds before…

_Zack used his powers on Duck…_

_Zack pulled a dagger out of their dad's dead body…_

Zara started breathing faster.

Loraine pounced on her, pinning her to the ground. She glared at her, still in Vamp mode, and smiled. "You really thought you could slay me?" She grabbed her by the throat. "You're nothing but a little pain in the neck. Speaking of which…" She bit her…


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Loraine kept feeding off Zara. Suddenly, Loraine stopped. She reached over her back and pulled out a crossbow bolt. She turned around, still in Vamp mode, and saw Kyra standing there with a loaded crossbow. Loraine smirked. "You really thought it'd be that easy to slay me?"

Kyra shook her head. "No. I just thought it would hold you off while Ace came after you to chop your head off."

Before Loraine could respond, Ace came up behind her with the Sword drawn and moved to chop her head off. She blocked the Sword and pushed him off, then the fight started.

Kyra raced over to Zara while the fight went on. "Zara!" Zara just lied there, unresponsive. "Zara!" She whirled around to glare at Loraine and waved her hand.

A tiger jumped at them.

Ace saw this and moved out of the way.

Loraine laughed. "I knew you were too chicken to fight…" She then heard something and turned around in time to see the tiger coming after her. It pounced on her. She pushed it away, making Kyra un-summon it, and ran off.

Ace helped Zara up with Kyra's help and the 2 leaders took her off to the hideout.

_20 minutes later…_

Zara was lying on a bed in the medical wing. She slowly woke up. She slowly opened her eyes. Her vision was blurred as she looked around, but it cleared up as she saw that she was in the medical wing. She put her hand on her neck and felt a bandage where the bite marks were. She groaned, remembering what had happened, and fell back against the pillow.

Gail walked in. "Zara?"

Zara looked at her. "Is everyone OK?"

"More or less. A few minor injuries. You got bit… Val killed a guy."

Zara sat bolt upright in the bed, her eyes widening. "What?" She grabbed her throat.

"Don't strain your voice like that. Tech says Loraine might have accidentally hit your larynx or something."

"Val killed someone?"

"It was an accident. But she's a little traumatized. She's gonna be fine though. As for you, Tech said that the bite was nothing to worry about. However, he did examine you and found some major brain damage."

Zara sighed. "I guess I'm gonna have to tell someone sooner or later." She told her the whole story about what had been going on with her powers.

Gail tried to process this. "Whoa. So there are times that you don't even have to voice your own wishes to grant them?"

"Right. But as far as I know, that only happens when I'm angry or if I'm concentrating hard enough. But when I was tapping in…it just…took me over. It started replaying my memories. I lost control. It started out with the good ones, those made me more powerful…but the bad ones started playing by themselves and they just paralyzed me."

"Sounds like you've been through some pretty bad stuff."

"You have no idea."

"Trust me, I do."

Zara looked at her.

"The reason I'm a Witch and Howie isn't a Warlock…I'm adopted."

Zara blinked. "What?"

"Long story." She sat down next to her. "See, the thing is…I don't know who my parents are. The night I was born, my mother died. My father died soon after. Eventually, I ended up in an orphanage and I was adopted by Howie's aunt and uncle. But then, out of nowhere, they just left. I don't where they are. And then Howie was orphaned. And then my so-called best friend, Felicia, just left and I haven't seen or heard from her since. Howie and I are alone, that's why I'm so protective of him."

"Gail, I'm sorry—"

"It's OK. Sounds like you've been through something similar. Lost your parents, got nowhere to live, only relation is a boy…at least you're not so distant from youe best friends."

"Yeah. I guess. But my parents were murdered. The way you describe it, it sounds like your mother died in child-birth and you dad got sick or something."

"Your guess is as good as mine."

Zara sighed.

"Just be thankful you got to know your parents before you lost them."

Zara smiled. "You know, Duck said that exact same thing."

Gail looked at her. "Duck's an orphan?"

"Yeah, you didn't know that?"

"No…" She sighed. "Do now."

Zara half-smiled.

"Why do I suddenly feel so close to you?"

"Well, we do have one thing in common…Zack."

Gail half-smiled.

Zara then slowly stopped smiling. "Zack…that's what's wrong with me and my powers. He's penetrating me."

Gail stopped smiling, too. "Are you sure?"

"What other explanation is there?"

"Well, Tech did find some irregular brain patterns scattered around you cerebral—"

"English, Gail."

"Right. Spent too much time with him. Basically, if I'm interpreting him right, he said that someone else is in your head."

Zara nodded. "It's Zack. I know it is. It has to be. Who else could break through to me?"

"Wake, maybe."

Zara sighed. "Then maybe Zack's getting a little too close to her."

Meanwhile, Jake was looking at Valerie, who sat alone on the couch in the main room of the hideout. He drifted his gaze over to Arra, who was patching up Lindy's sore wrist. He stared at her. She was beautiful to him. He looked back over at Valerie. She needed some company, Arra was fine. He went over and sat next to her. "Hey."

Valerie looked at him and half-smiled, obviously not cheering up. "Hey."

"How you doing?"

"Been better."

"Obviously."

Valerie half-smiled again, this time a little cheerier.

Arra stopped helping Lindy and smilingly turned to look at Jake…and her smile faded when she saw him with Valerie. She looked at her feet.

Valerie looked at Jake. "You know, the problem is…I think when I killed the guy…I like it."

Jake looked at her. "Val, that's…wow. I want to tell you off, but…I can't."

Valerie leaned forward in her seat. "Then you know we don't belong here. Zack went and switched sides…" She slowly started to smile. "Why don't we?"

Jake smiled evilly. "Yeah, why don't we?"

"Meet you there." Valerie fell through her seat…

…and reappeared in the Dark Side's building. She stumbled and finally regained her balance. "Gotta work on the long distance."

"Valerie," said Josephine.

Valerie looked at her. "Good to see you again."

"You thought you could just come in here and show your little goody-2-shoes face and expect us to not try to kill you?"

"Actually…I'm here to join you."

"Come again?"

Jake atomized into the room. "Val give you the low-down?"

"You 2 are both defecting?"

"I'll take that as a 'yes.'"

Wake came into the room. "I knew Zack wouldn't be the only one."

"That would've been useful info 3 months ago," said Deirdre.

"_Zack_ is my successor. But he's not the only one who started on the wrong side."

Valerie looked around. "Where is Zack?"

Loraine smiled. "He's having a little fun with that sister of his…"

Zack was in his room on the bed. "Alright, Zara. Get ready for the ride of your life…"

Back at the hideout, the gang was searching for Jake and Valerie.

"Jake!" Arra called out.

"Val!" Willis cried out.

Kyra groaned, giving up. "Where are they?"

Gail ran up with Zara. "We've got a problem."

"You're telling me," said Trinity, "Jake and Val bailed!"

"What?"

"They just vanished."

"Well, that's no small feat for them."

"Yeah, I get that, but what I mean is that they haven't come back."

"You don't think they defected, do you?" asked Cassandra.

Zara blinked. "Unfortunately, I'm pretty certain that's the only logical answer."

Nathan sighed. "Great, now we…wait, how'd you know that?"

"Zack, he's…" Zara groaned and bent over in pain.

Zack groaned a little and pressed the heel of his hand against his forehead. "Focus…if this is what I'm feeling, I wonder what's going on with Zara—" He fainted.

Zara fainted.

"Zara!" Gail knelt down and grabbed her. "What happened?"

Tech raced over. "I don't know. She's acting like she just kicked into a coma but her brain was functioning fine despite the neural backfire from the—"

"Tech!" Trinity cried, stopping his rant, "Let me just see if I can get her up." She took Zara's hand. "Nothing. It's like she's not even there. I can't influence her, I can't pull her from reality…"

"Because she's not in reality." Howie raced over and read her. "Her soul's not even in her body."

"That's not what I'm getting," said Sandra, "My senses only act up like this without full out shocking me when something's wrong. And I'm telling you something is wrong here."

"How wrong are we talking?" asked Duck.

"I'll let you know that." Arra moved Trinity and Howie out of the way and put her hand on Zara's head. She scanned her…and was knocked back by a surge of energy.

"Whoa!" Lindy looked back and forth between Arra and Zara. She raced over to Arra. "What happened?"

"I don't know. The first thing I got when I scanned her was…"

_Zack stabbed Zara with Deirdre's dagger..._

Arra blinked a few times. "It's Zack." Everyone looked at her. "Remember back when we ambushed the Dark Side? Zack was able to use his powers on Duck from a distance. He's not supposed to be able to do that. And Wake even said that he was 'tapping in' to his powers. You don't think he used his fear power and their twin bond to penetrate her, do you?"

"That's exactly what's going on, but it doesn't explain this!" Gail said. She looked at Zara. "Come on, Zara, where are you?"

_Zara woke up in a dark place. She looked around. It lit up. It was the Dark Side's building…the one that was knocked over a couple weeks ago! She turned around and saw Zack looking at her. She jumped back and fell back on the floor._

_Zack smirked. "Hey, Zar. Miss me?"_

Zara wrestled a little as Gail started to help the others take her back to the medical wing.

Zack lay on the bed in his room in the Dark Side's building and smiled…


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Tech was looking over a bunch of machines and stuff.

"What's going on with her, Tech?" asked Ace.

Tech sighed. "Well, everything's functioning properly—her heart's beating at a normal rate, her lungs are contracting in the same manner as usual—but her brain is barely vibrating at the regular pace. Earlier, it was sped up. Now it's so slowly operating, it's like she's not using it at all."

"Be pretty hard to use it if she's not in there," said Gail, leaning against the wall, "If her soul is somewhere else entirely, it's amazing her body is still functioning at all with her essence out."

"So the question becomes," said Kyra, "where is her soul?"

_Zara looked around. She was walking around the old Loonatics' tower. She walked into the living room. She looked around. She turned around and started backing up…right into Zack. She yelped and jumped back. "Zack…"_

_"Don't worry…I'm not gonna hurt you…yet."_

_Zara started backing away again…and backed right into Zack. Again. "Quit doing that!"_

_"Oh, I'm just trying to freak you out. I have your soul, I can mess with your mind."_

_"You have my soul?"_

_"Being Wake's successor, she taught me some pretty neat tricks on manipulating my little old Fear power. Turns out, our twin bond is so fragile from that meteor strike that I can actually penetrate your mind, suck your soul into mine, tear apart the fears in your subconscious, and manipulate them."_

_"The memories replaying when I use my powers…"_

_"Oh, actually, that wasn't me…not at first. See, your powers are cracking as they expand, so sometimes they'll get a little too much for you. But I repaired them so that I could mess them up all over again. Big system."_

_"You're doing this to me? Why?"_

_"Look, you're L-Force's most powerful. Which makes you a bit of a liability for them, right? So if someone on Wake's side is holding you down, you're out of the way. Actually, I was originally supposed to be too much of an asset to the plan and I couldn't be spared, but once Wake realized that you were unaware of what your powers were doing to you and that I was the only one who noticed it—our clairvoyant didn't even notice it—and that I noticed it before her…obviously, I was the only choice."_

_"Wait, Wake is the only other one who could've done this?"_

_"She's an Oasis, a hell-child, she can do a lot of things. Of course, since you're a twin, I was the more likely answer."_

_"Zack, are you turning into her?"_

_"Of course not! It's just that I'm her successor, I'm gonna be her right hand man no matter what. All her power goes to me if something happens to her. Unless, of course, something is standing in our way. And…ta-da."_

_Zara looked at herself. "You're not doing anything to the others, are you?"_

_"Far from it. They're not leaving your side. I'll let you listen if you don't believe me." He rested his hand on the table and all other sound faded as Zara became able to hear what they were saying._

Kyra sighed. "Well, Zack's the one doing this."

"There's no other explanation," said Gail, "I felt another soul meshing with her inwardly…Tech saw her brain patterns going all wonky—"

"So what do we do?" asked Nathan, "I mean, the only logical answer is to get to Zack and break his hold on her."

"How do we do that?" asked Duck, "Kill him?"

_Zara heard this. "NO!"_

Gail and Lexi heard that.

So did Claire and Wake.

Wake smiled.

Claire tried to trace that signal.

Lexi tried to figure out where the sound had come from.

Gail looked at Zara. Her soul had briefly let off a signal from that body.

_Zara looked at Zack, her soul having returned to her body briefly enough to let her see this. "They can hear us?"_

_"Well, yeah, if you yell like that! Patch the signal through and at least Gail and Lex can hear. I mean, Wake's an obvious and our clairvoyant would have heard that just by our bond setting off such a strong signal because of it."_

_"Look, I'm just concerned about you here. I'm worried about the others getting themselves killed without me. And I certainly don't wanna them to kill someone who's not evil—"_

_"Oh, I am evil."_

_"Some part of you must still be good. I don't want you to get hurt."_

_"You know…you really should be more concerned about yourself." He grabbed a knife and shoved it in her gut._

_"AAAAAHHHHHH!"_

Tech's machine started beeping rapidly. He inspected it. "Why is her heart rate quickening?"

Kyra inspected Zara. Her eyes widened. "I think I know." She pushed down the covers Zara was under and held up her shirt enough to reveal a bleeding stab wound…

_Zara looked around. She was still holding onto her stomach where Zack had cut her. She was breathing rapidly, heart pounding, from that. Now she was looking around that lobby of the Loonatics' old tower instead of the living room. She was starting to notice a slight resemblance between the lobby of the old tower and the lobby of the hideout, but that wasn't important. She had to find Zack and get him to let her go. She whirled around and jumped back when she saw Zack standing there. "Seriously, you're gonna give me a heart attack doing that!"_

_"That's the point."_

_Zara glared at him._

_"Look, we need you out of the way. You want me back. Isn't the logical choice to be trapped with me?"_

_"Not if you're gonna be trying to kill me repeatedly!"_

_"I'm not trying to kill you. If I were, I would've done it already. No, I'm toying with your mind here. By the time your soul goes back into your body, it's gonna jump right back out because your mind won't go with it."_

_"You're gonna drive me insane until I'll kill myself?"_

_"Or at least until you want to."_

_"I'm not gonna do that, Zack. You're my brother and I love you. I'm not gonna let you give into Wake."_

_"And I'm not gonna let you go back to your super-friends, so I guess one of us is gonna have to be disappointed. Oh, wait, I'm in charge here." He grabbed her. "Guess it's gonna have to be you." He pushed her to the floor…_

Zara lay in the bed in the medical wing at the hideout. Her heartbeat slowly quickening. If Zack didn't let her wake up soon, his plan might just work…


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Quinn was speed-reading a bunch of books. "I don't get it. There's nothing in any of these books that explains what's going on with Zara and Zack right now. It's not even in the book that told us what was going on with Wake!" He dropped the book he was holding on the floor. Well, not so much "dropped it on the floor" as "threw it at the wall."

Paula sat down next to him. "Calm down. You're gonna find it."

"When? When one of them is already dead?"

"Don't say that!" Gail snapped, tearfully. They both looked at her and she sat down on the couch, grabbing her knees and crying silently. Zara was becoming her friend and Zack was officially a crush. Or a lover. Now she was losing both. She couldn't take it.

Kyra sat down next to her. "Don't worry, we're gonna find Zara and get her back. And we're gonna make sure Zack regrets what he's doing and stops."

"I just hope he's not gonna be evil forever."

Kyra sighed. "I don't know." Then she thought of something. "Wait a minute. Her soul's not in her body. That doesn't mean her mind is unreachable." She raced over to Paula. "Do you think you can contact her with your telepathy?"

"Well, I couldn't put an illusion in her head and draw her out or anything, but I could probably use the mind-reading portion of my telepathy to contact her. Of course, I'd have to mix my powers and do some sort of Vulcan mind-meld thing that might knock me out, but—"

"Yeah, we can risk it," Duck interrupted, dragging her off and back to Zara.

Zara still lay in the bed.

Paula slowly approached her. She grabbed a hand and closed her eyes…

_Zack pierced her…_

Paula winced.

_Zack knocked her onto the floor…_

Paula turned away.

_Zack pushed her into the wall and grabbed her—_

Paula couldn't take it. She pulled away. "Zack's torturing her. I can't get through."

"What do you mean?" asked Lexi, walking up to her.

"I mean Zack's manipulating their twin bond and entrapping her soul in his own mind. I can't get through to her without contact with Zack and she's not coming out of this little comatose state until he wants her to…"

Kyra sighed. "There's gotta be a way we can get through to her and get Zack to let go without having to cross the Dark Side."

Paula smiled sneakily. "I think I have an idea…"

_Zara was running down a street into a graveyard. Suddenly, a Vampire, just rising from his grave, reached out and grabbed her foot, thus pulling her down. She turned around and kicked him off, but he still rose completely and attacked her._

_"Wait!"_

_The Vampire pulled away before he could bite her._

_Zack walked up. "Save her for me. There'll be plenty when I'm done."_

_The Vampire backed off._

_Zack got closer._

_Zara started backing away in a crab-walk. "Zack, please…don't do this."_

_"Look, Zar, there's more at work than you think. It's not that easy to just let go. I've been evil longer than you realize, I can't just pull away."_

_"But you have to. And I so wish you would." She started to snap her fingers._

_He grabbed her wrist. "Don't make me break it."_

_She pulled it away. "Look, isn't there some way we can settle this? I want you back!"_

_"I can't come back. I'm tied to Wake as long as I'm evil."_

_"Here's a thought: STOP BEING EVIL!"_

_"It's not that simple."_

_"It's as simple as playing checkers. You come back, stop obeying Wake—"_

_"Wake's got her hold on me."_

_"Because you let her."_

_"Because I want her to."_

_"Don't…you know that's a lie."_

_"Is it?"_

_Zara started breathing faster, tearfully. "You're not my brother."_

Zack still lay unconscious on his bed in the Dark Side's building. His hands, lying beside him, slowly began to curl up into fists.

Paula, meanwhile, peeked through the door of the building, having traced the thoughts there. She looked at Rev, who did a scan and telepathically fed her the info she needed. She nodded and closed her eyes again…

Scarlet was in her little garden, tending a couple plants. Suddenly, a plant started wilting. She went over to the tiny pink flower and started trying to return it to its former health with her powers…to no effect. "What?" She kept trying.

Paula smiled, seeing this as a worthwhile distraction. She then proceeded to feed illusions to all the other members of the Dark Side to allow the gang access into the building. Well, at least Gail. She was gonna let the others know when it was safe by letting Paula transfer her thoughts to them.

Gail found Zack's room. She looked at him as she walked in. She sat down next to him. She saw that he was tensing and felt the rush going through him from holding down Zara's soul with their twin bond. _I found Zack. I feel Zara. It's time to start separating them._ She took his hand and closed her eyes and concentrated… _Huh?_

_What's wrong? _Howie sent out for her.

_Zack…his soul is split in half. Zara's just fine, she's right inside his mind…but it's like Zack is 2 different people. I mean, one's buried deep down inside the other, but…I think the one buried is the real Zack._

_"Real Zack"? _asked Duck, _There's a fake one?_

_No…there's an evil one._

Zack twitched.

Gail noticed.

_Thunder stormed through the graveyard._

_Both twins looked around and tried to figure out where the thunder was coming from._

_"What was that?" asked Zara._

_"Not what. Who."_

_Zara looked at him._

_"Could you hold on for a second?" Another thunder strike and Zack was gone._

_Zara looked around. The Vampires were rising. "Nuts."_

Gail saw Zack's hands moving. _Guys? I think we have a problem—_

Zack's eyes snapped open. He grabbed Gail and pinned her down. "Hey, Gail."


	7. Chapter 7

OK, just to be safe, this chapter should be 11+ at least.

Chapter 7

Gail sat in a chair in the lobby of the hideout, wrapping a blanket around herself with one hand and holding an ice pack to her sore head with the other. "Thanks for pulling me out."

"It's OK, Gail," Howie said, sitting next to her, "We're supposed to protect our own. And you're alright, right?"

"Of course, How," said Gail, putting down the ice pack and starting to get up, "I'm fin—oh, that's a nosebleed!" She grabbed her nose as if it were broken.

Kyra came up and held a cloth to her face. "Boy, he really did a number on you, didn't he?"

"Well, I'd say so, he…" She then remembered that 14-year-old Howie was in the room. "You know, he…" She bobbed her head.

Kyra's eyes widened as she realized what that meant. "OH! Oh! He… Did he…?"

"Oh, no! Nothing like that! He just… You know the phrase 'going for second'?"

Kyra nodded.

"Yeah, he just struck a double play and stole a base." She sat back down. "Lucky for me, the ball hit the plate first."

"You fought him off?"

She thought about that. "Sure, let's go with that."

Duck came up. "What's she talking about? Did she seduce him or something?"

Gail glared at him.

Kyra whispered something in his ear.

"OH! Oh…whoa."

"Can we move on to another subject?" Trinity asked, uncomfortably.

"Right." Kyra looked at Gail. "What'd you find? Did you get Zara out?"

"No, she was buried too deep in his subconscious. I'd have to be Ellen Paige in _Inception_ to get her out of him, even with my powers. And the movie would've made more sense."

"Well, what'd you find out about Zack?"

Gail sighed and put down the cloth. "The reason he's evil: the meteor's impact did something…or Wake's messed with him through his powers when she rose…for some reason, his soul was split before he got knocked into his coma. Wake knew about this; that's why she made Deirdre plant that bomb. She knew Zack would get knocked in a coma and something would happen because of his split soul that would make him end up evil. That way he goes to their side and becomes the way to take out Zara. We lose our 2 most powerful, the Dark Side gets a top warrior—it's a win-win for them. Lose-lose for us."

"Unless, of course, we can pull Zara out," said Orion, "I mean, how hard could it be to—"

Gail looked at him.

"What?"

"Maybe I didn't make myself clear enough: she buried too deep inside him. She's not in reality, her soul is locked in a fractured one, she can't heal herself and wouldn't be able to even if she could because she's not in contact with her own body—there's no way to get her out unless we can convince Zack to somehow. And given what he almost just did to me, I'd say he's drifted too far into the dark side of the Force to give in to anything on the manipulation scale from 'rabbit season, duck season' to 'these are not the droids you're looking for.'"

"Not that the last one ever works," said Trinity, "Maybe if we can get him close enough to me—"

"We're not risking you," Orion instantly ordered her, "If you force Zack to give up Zara, he's gonna wake up first and the first thing he'll do is attack you like he did to Gail."

"Actually," said Gail, "if Tree's influence is strong enough to pull Zara away from Zack's manipulation, she might be able to influence him to not attack her. All we have to do is get him away from the Dark Side, make sure she catches him in one of the points where he can wake up with Zara still buried, get her to make him give up Zara's ghost—pun intended—and then make him back off long enough to make a clean getaway."

"She can only hold an influence as long as she's touching someone," said Orion, "As soon as she would let go of him to make her way off, he'd be able to attack."

"Look, even if Zara isn't, Zack is still in reality. He's one of the things she can manipulate, even if at the cost of her own energy."

"Too much energy. She'd be too weak by then to hold him off."

"So we'll come along. All of us put together can easily hold down one."

"And what if the rest of the Dark Side jumps in? What then?"

"We'll do what we can. I know there's probably more of them to take care of by now, especially now that Jake and Val skipped, but with people like me and Trinity on the team, we could take them no problem."

"What about Wake?"

Gail sighed. She had nothing to say to that.

"You know…" Trinity said, "…this plan…might just be crazy enough to actually work."

"That's what I was gonna say," Tech instantly jumped in.

Trinity smiled.

_Zara finished fighting off the Vampires. She was even more sore and in pain than before Zack had zoned out, but she was still alive and not suicidal._

_Then Zack reappeared._

_Zara looked at him. "How long were you gone?"_

_"A while. Long enough to have a little fun with good old Gail." He was smiling eerily. It was freaking her out._

_"OK, why do you suddenly have this creepy look of satisfaction like you got some—oh my, squirrel, you raped her?"_

_"Tried to. She's relentless. She tranquilized me halfway there."_

_Zara sighed with relief._

_"Lucky for me, you're not gonna get that far."_

_Zara looked at him again._

Zack lay on his bed again. He slowly started smiling again…

(Mission Impossible theme plays)

The window slowly opened and Duck slid in on a rope. He rolled across the floor to the bed and jumped onto Zack, careful not to wake him up just yet, and grabbed him, quacking both of them off to the street a couple blocks down. He looked at the others. "That was too easy. But fun."

Trinity shushed him. She knelt down and grabbed Zack's wrists, closing her eyes.

_Zack was advancing on Zara. Suddenly, he was pushed back into a tree._

Zack's eyes snapped open. Of course, he instantly stared trying to fight her off.

Orion started for her.

"Wait!" Tech stopped him.

Trinity kept her hold on Zack.

_Zara looked around. The tree collapsed. The rest of the graveyard started to crumble around her and fade from sight…she jumped…_

…and woke up. She looked around. She was back in the medical wing at the hideout. She grabbed her neck and felt the bandage where Loraine had bitten her. Then she examined the rest of her body and saw no stab wounds or bruises or bites. "Oh…" She fell back onto her pillow somewhat happily.

Trinity pushed Zack down. "Zara's out."

"Then let's get out of here." Orion, of course, instantly started dragging Trinity off. The others followed.

Zack looked at Orion and Tech protectively holding Trinity and smirked. "Nice girl. Does she want a taste of what Gail got?"

Tech and Orion whirled around, prepared to attack him—

"No!" Gail stopped them. "He's not worth it." She looked at Zack. "Trust me, I know."

Zack just smirked at her.

She led them off with Kyra.

_30 minutes later…_

After giving her some time to recuperate, Kyra had led Zara into from the medical wing to her bedroom, where the 2 were now talking.

"How you holding up?" asked Kyra.

"Not the best, but I'll live." Zara sighed. "I can't believe Zack would do that."

"It wasn't him. Gail said his soul was fragmented. Half of it isn't there, it's been replaced by some dark force."

"Wow. That explains a lot. I mean, he said he almost raped her."

"Truth."

"Ouch."

"Yeah."

Zara shrugged. "Well, at least the rest wasn't real. I mean, I should've suspected he only had me in comatose when I heard you guys say Jake and Val had skipped. That's crazy, right?"

Kyra's smile slowly faded.

Zara stopped smiling, too. "What?"

Kyra sighed. "That was real."

Zara stared at her.

"Apparently, Zack's defection was a bit too much of an inspiration for them. They jumped ship just before you went out of it."

Zara didn't take her eyes off her.

"Kyra!" Nathan's voice came through from the next room, "The new recruits will be here in a few minutes! You better let them in!"

Kyra walked over to the door and opened it. "I'm coming, Nat!" She looked at Zara one last time and left.

Zara groaned, pounding her pillow. "I wish Zack had never turned evil!" Suddenly, an idea hit her. And it hit her hard. It hit her with such force that she couldn't control herself when it did. She looked at her fingers and didn't stop herself from snapping them.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

YAY! I finished it! Yeah, I watched Star Wars with my brother and I recently got to see Inception so I enjoyed making comments about those through Gail. Well, I had a little fun with this one even if it was a little unimportant for the story from chapter 2 on and wasn't all that good because I got all those writer's blocks but the next one might be a little better. I hope. Anyway, see ya!


End file.
